Can students at Washington
and Lee eat healthy? The good news is
that the freshman fifteen is not inevitable. With the right kinds of
choices about the foods you are eating, along with a regular
exercise program, college students can remain healthy. All it
takes is a little advance planning and some careful choices whether
you are eating in the on-campus dining facilities, fraternity or
sorority houses or cooking for yourself.

Check out the food pyramid that you are
used to seeing compared to the newer Healthy Eating Pyramid
developed at Harvard School of Public Health. The key is
balancing exercise along with appropriate food choices.

Now that you
have had a chance to study the newer way of thinking about eating
remember it's also about:

portion sizes--a portion of meat
is about the size of a deck of cards, 1 oz of cheese is about the
size of your thumb, 1 oz of nuts or any snackfood = 1 handful, the
tip of your thumb = 1 serving of mayonnaise or margarine

eating more fruits and veggies
than you currently do---check it out---fruits 3-5x per day and
unlimited veggies

http://www.lillydiabetes.com/default2.cfm don't let
the diabetes throw you (it is just a healthy way for all of us to
eat in general)---loaded with info on healthy eating including
sample meal plans, serving sizes and much more in both the nutrition
and education sections.

http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/ Center for
Nutrition Policy and Promotion---USDA guidelines, recipes, lots of
good info, especially the Interactive Healthy Eating Index to
analyze the quality of your diet!

http://www.eatright.org/ American Dietetic
Association---go to Healthy Lifestyle section for fact sheets
everything from fiber to dieting to vegetarian eating.

http://www.eattocompete.com Tim Wierman of Nutrition
Educational Services teaches individuals and groups new dietary
behaviors that may lead to better health and improved athletic
performance.His manual is housed in the Athletic Training
Office in Warner Gym.